Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)Curtis, George Ticknor
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Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)
Curtis, George Ticknor
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
The course I pursued towards them, and from which I have never
swerved, but have succeeded in carrying out, is clearly disclosed in
these letters. I had no agency in bringing them out. I have not seen
them since they were written, and did not know that they were to be
published.
Mr. Dickinson and a few of his friends are very decided—not to say
bitter—against me, and scarcely less so against all the other
candidates except General Cass. They are professedly for him. Mr. D.’s
friends—it would be uncharitable to say he himself has any such
thoughts—hope to bring about his nomination, and are shaping things so
far as they can for such a result. They believe that his and their
advocacy of General Cass, and sturdy opposition to all others, will
give him nearly all of the General’s friends in the event he has to be
abandoned, an event which will not deeply grieve them; and they
flatter themselves that the great favor with which Mr. D. is regarded
in the South will render it easy to detach from you and transfer to
him most of your supporters in that quarter. If you and General Cass
are killed off, and he inherits the estate of both, his fortune will
certainly be made. I do not comment upon the practicability of this
theory. Well, if he is nominated, we must turn in and do what we can
for him. Here, where he has been so bitter against the C——rs and
against me, because they are willing to give me their support—where he
denounces them as not belonging to the Democratic party—we shall have
a hard task on our hands, and can hardly hope to give him the vote of
the State; it will therefore be the more necessary that you and your
friends should secure for him that of Pennsylvania. I know it is not
kind to speculate on the chances of another rising upon your downfall,
and therefore I will dismiss the subject; nor is it friendly to
trouble you with this long letter at a critical conjuncture, when you
want your time to cheer and guide your friends at Baltimore.
My epistle would be defective if it did not contain Mrs. M.’s express
desire to be kindly remembered to you.
Yours truly,
W. L. MARCY.
[MARCY TO BUCHANAN.]
ALBANY, June 6, 1852.
MY DEAR SIR:—
In my most hopeful mood, if it can be truly said I have been in such a
state of mind, I did not look to anything but a remote contingent
remainder. I cannot, therefore, say that for myself I feel any
disappointment at the result of the convention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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